


I wanna try (even though I could fail)

by flywithturtles (greenet)



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alpha!suga, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Daichi-Asahi friendship, Fluff and Mush, Karasuno third years friendship, M/M, Mutual Pining, Omega!Daichi, Other Pairings Implied - Freeform, courting with food
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-16
Updated: 2016-05-16
Packaged: 2018-06-07 04:26:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6785140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greenet/pseuds/flywithturtles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“I wish you’d stop doing this,” Suga said. He jabbed him lightly in the side to show his displeasure, pulling his punch the way he only did when Daichi was like this. The rest of the time Suga hardly seemed to notice that he was an omega. Daichi was resigned to that. It wasn’t like he <i>wanted</i> Suga to treat him any different. </p><p>…Except maybe he did. Maybe he’d wanted that for a while now.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I wanna try (even though I could fail)

**Author's Note:**

> fairly standard a/b/o fic where smell-taste is very important to society. And some people have smell-hearing or smell-sight as well. Basically yay synesthesia, I guess. A brief moment of an adult being attracted to a teenager, which obviously would be hard to hide in this kind of society. 
> 
> mushy filthy prompt: a/b/o (this has pretty much no filth though, so I may have to try again. Apparently the equivalent of weird super powers I can do, filthy smut with said super power - not so much.)
> 
> I'm very willing to up the rating, btw, but as the only thing that's really described is making out, I landed on T.
> 
> title: Try Everything, Shakira

Daichi whined in disappointment when Suga pulled away, the way he always did. “Suga, come on!” He could smell how much Suga wanted him. On Suga it smelled mostly sharp and hot like ginger with a hint of chili. He tended to make people sneeze, which had made Suga’s cheeks turn red in embarrassment when they were younger, but now it mostly just made him give a rueful shrug. Daichi had asked Suga what he smelled like and been told it was like a mountain spring, which was possibly the least sexy smell Daichi could think of, besides Tanaka’s dishwater soap which lodged at the back of his throat and made everything taste revolting (“Coriander,” Suga laughed. “Cilantro,” said Daichi, sticking his tongue out). 

“I wish you’d stop doing this,” Suga said. He jabbed him lightly in the side to show his displeasure, pulling his punch the way he only did when Daichi was like this. The rest of the time Suga hardly seemed to notice that he was an omega. Daichi was resigned to that. It wasn’t like he _wanted_ Suga to treat him any different. 

…Except maybe he did. Maybe he’d wanted that for a while now. 

“I didn’t do it on purpose!” Daichi protested. He never wanted to pressure Suga into anything he didn’t want, it was just hard to suppress his clingy tendencies when he was like this. He’d thought he’d had more time. He should have had more time. There wasn’t anything in the rules about not playing when the quarterly heat started, but the only omega Daichi knew of who could do it without becoming restless and unfocused was Oikawa, who took bloody minded determination to new and exciting levels. Unfortunately he was doing it now, and the persistent smell of fresh cut grass was probably what had kickstarted the heats of half the omegas in the tournament. It happened like that some times, if the omega in heat was strong enough, and Oikawa was definitely that. 

Aoba Johsai’s Ace, Daichi had noticed, seemed more resigned than anything else. Growly, but resigned. He was probably used to it. But there was an unusual amount of short-tempered alphas pacing the hallways in-between matches, while the entirety of the all-beta Johzenji team were mocking everyone within sight. The Johzenji captain was probably going to get a fist in the face before the day was over. Luckily that wasn’t Daichi’s problem. 

Daichi put his hands on Suga’s waist and tried to pull him closer. “But, please, just this once. I want to play,” he said, pleading. Fucking wouldn’t make the heat go away, but it would make him less desperate, less distracted. He’d be able to actually _play_. Right now he just needed. It wasn’t a feverish need, but it was distracting and all he could think of was Suga’s hands on him, Suga’s mouth on his, the smell of Suga wanting him back. He wanted to bury his nose in Suga’s armpit which was frankly disturbing and weird. “I won’t ask again, I promise.” It was a lie, and Suga had to know it too, but right now Daichi was desperate enough to promise anything if Suga would just say yes.

This time it hadn’t even been him — it had been Ennoshita, whose sense of smell was sensitive enough to smell the heat building before Daichi himself could properly register it. He’d dragged Daichi and Suga along with a fist curled into both their shirts and shoved them into the first available room. Daichi thought it was an unused office-slash-store room based on the desk and the massive stacks of boxes all over. “Don’t come out until you’re ready to play,” Ennoshita had said, giving them both a stern look, and then he’d stomped off, leaving a faint scent of licorice behind. 

Suga sighed, allowing Daichi to move him. He put his hands over Daichi’s. “All right.” 

“…Really?” 

“Yeah, we need you on the court.” He steered Daichi towards the dusty desk. “You just need to get fucked, right?” 

“Oh god, yes.” Daichi could hardly believe Suga had finally said yes, even if it was just because Suga wanted to win more than he wanted to say no. He’d asked during his last three heats, and Suga had turned him down every time. He’d think Suga didn’t want him and back off, he wasn’t that pushy or that into rejection, but Suga always smelled as though he _did_ want him, flooding Daichi’s senses with chili and ginger the way he was doing now, and that was the main reason Daichi hadn’t given up yet. 

Ennoshita had left them with a fistful of condoms because Ennoshita was a wonderful human being who thought ahead. Omega male pregnancies were rare, but Daichi would rather not take the chance. He definitely didn’t want to when Suga seemed so ambivalent about wanting to fuck him. 

But having said yes, Suga put all his effort into it. Daichi didn’t know who Suga had done this with before, but it had to be someone, because he definitely knew what he was doing. Daichi… Well, Daichi had thought about it a lot? And once Daichi let go and _stopped_ thinking it was easy.

* * *

“How do you feel?” Suga asked. He’d pulled his shorts back up, and his smell was muted. Still ginger, but Suga almost always smelled like ginger even when the chili faded. “Did it work?”

“Better. It should be manageable now,” Daichi said. He smiled up at Suga. He’d collapsed on the floor, back against the desk. It wasn’t how he’d imagined their first time, but he could still feel Suga’s cock inside him, the way his fingers had clenched on his shoulders, Suga’s hot breath against his neck, the sound of his name torn out of Suga when he climaxed, and he wasn’t sure he could have asked for anything more. Daichi carefully stored it all up in his memory to marvel at later. 

“Good. Then let’s get going.” 

Daichi put his hand out and Suga pulled him up, waiting until he was steady on his feet before letting go. Daichi leaned in, trying to get a final kiss, but Suga turned away. 

“Daichi, don’t. Let’s just… Get dressed and let’s go.” 

Daichi’s smile faded. “Suga? Did I do something wrong?”

“No, you didn’t do anything wrong,” Suga assured him. He still wasn’t looking at Daichi though. His hands were clenched into tight fists by his hips. “But we have to get back to the match. Can’t let Oikawa have it all his own way.” 

He had no choice but to accept it, but it didn’t feel right. 

He walked silently after Suga to the court. He’d hoped… It had felt like it had meant something. It had meant something to Daichi. It wasn’t just ‘emergency fucking so we can play’, not to Daichi. If that was all he’d needed, he could have asked Ennoshita to stay instead. He’d wanted Suga. He always wanted Suga. He’d hoped Suga wanted him back. When Suga had touched him, it had seemed as though he did. 

Daichi couldn’t have been that wrong, could he?

Ennoshita had kept the team in order, of course he had, and once Daichi was back on the court that was all he was thinking about. Suga didn’t avoid him there and seemed completely normal. Smiling, supportive and enthusiastic, cheering the way he usually did. On the way home, however, Suga was quick to grab one of the single seats, leaving Daichi with Asahi as a seat mate. Daichi tried not to take it personally.

* * *

When Suga was definitely avoiding him when they were back at school, he did take it personally. It was hard not to when Suga was sticking to a bewildered but happy Tanaka during practice, claiming that they needed to practice their synchronicity, and vanished completely during lunch. 

Daichi dragged Asahi with him home after school a week later because Asahi was one of his closest friends and a good listener when he wasn’t too caught up in his own anxieties to pay attention. He didn’t really expect Asahi to have any good ideas, but at least he could listen. 

“But he does want me,” Daichi said, bewildered. He was sitting crosslegged on the floor and had given up on homework after five minutes of pretending to study. “I can smell it on him. You can too, right? I’m not imagining things?” 

Asahi nodded. He reached out and gave Daichi an awkward pat on the thigh. All of Daichi’s friends were alphas or betas, and usually he didn’t mind that, but right now they were all being completely useless. Michimiya had gone “I got nothing” when he’d asked her for advice. Mostly he ended up being the one advising her, but sometimes she did return the favour. She smelled like apples and cinnamon when she was turned on and it was nice, sure, and he liked her, but it wasn’t what Daichi wanted. Daichi wanted ginger and chili. He’d been eating a lot of spicy fish dishes recently, and it was already past ridiculous. 

He’d even considered Skyping Kuroo for some advice from a fellow omega, but he was keeping that as his absolutely final nothing-else-is-working option. Kuroo might help him, but Daichi wasn’t sure he was willing to pay the inevitable costs that came with following Kuroo’s advice. 

“Do you think it’s me?” Daichi suspected that that was the reason. Suga didn’t _want_ to want him, and it was probably because it was Daichi. Daichi didn’t have self-confidence issues, and he was quite happy being the omega he was — sweet and gentle had never been qualities he’d aspired to — but he didn’t understand why Suga was behaving the way he did. If Daichi hadn’t done anything wrong, then why was Suga avoiding him? 

Suga had never seemed to care that he wasn’t very omega-like in his behavior — though what did that mean, really? It wasn’t like there was only One True Way of being an omega. The entirety of Nekoma should be enough evidence of that — but maybe it was different when he was considering a potential mate. They were way too young to actually mate, be together forever and all that, but maybe Suga was thinking about it. Maybe when Suga imagined the future, he envisioned someone cute and sweet to come home to. Someone as kind and caring as he was. Someone who’s cooking skills went beyond ‘boiling water’. Someone who cared what they looked like. Someone nothing like Daichi, in short. 

“No… I mean, he smells like he likes you?” Asahi said uncertainly. “He acts like he does.”

Daichi shook his head. “I know, but. Maybe if I shouted less?”

Asahi gave him a dubious look. “I don’t see that working very well. I’ll support you if you want to try, but… Noya. Tanaka. Hinata. I mean. You could _try_ , I guess?” 

Daichi sighed. “No, you’re right. That’s a wimpy choice you might make. I’ll think of something else.”

Asahi flushed but didn’t protest. Off the court Asahi was one of the least assertive betas Daichi had ever met. Daichi kept wanting to shake some self-confidence into him. Somebody that tall and powerful should not be trying to hide behind other people, that was just sad. At least Noya seemed to share Daichi’s frustration and was poking Asahi as well. Daichi suspected that Noya might have a better chance at succeeding than he did.

* * *

After the weekend, Daichi came to school with his eyes lined with black eyeliner and mascara lengthening his lashes. It had taken ages to get the lines nice and smooth, and it was hard to keep his hands away from his eyes, but it was worth it when Suga saw him and the air burned with chili and ginger. 

He grinned happily.

Suga smiled back reflexively then he blinked and looked away. He kept glancing towards Daichi though, even if he wouldn’t meet Daichi’s gaze for long. Daichi was still pleased with the reaction he got. 

Suga wasn’t the only one to give him second looks, but nobody said anything or acted any different otherwise, so Daichi just enjoyed the attention as something new. 

He regretted it when it was time for practice and the air was suddenly full of competing smells, chili and cilantro and licorice and lemon and mulberries, and a surprising sharp spike of mint that was quickly dampened. His neck was burning when he went to talk to Coach Ukai. He hadn’t expected _this_. 

Ukai put his hand lightly on Daichi’s arm to catch his attention when they were done talking about the plan for the practice. “My apologies,” he said formally. “If you want to complain, I won’t deny my reaction. I hope you know I would _never_ act on anything like this.” 

“It’s, uh, you don’t have to apologize,” Daichi said awkwardly. Ukai had never reacted like this to him before. He hadn’t reacted like that to any of them, not even Kiyoko. Usually the breath mint smell only appeared when Take-chan was being particularly cute (or particularly persuasive). There were teachers who could hide it well enough that other adults didn’t suspect, but the students always knew. Ukai wasn’t like that, Take-chan wasn’t like that. “Is… Does it really make that much of a difference?” 

“It makes you look omega. I tend to forget that you are, but now you look it, so I suppose it does, yes,” Ukai said frankly. He looked a little sheepish. “But I would never—“

“No, I know.”

Daichi wasn’t sure why it made him uncomfortable that people reacted like this when reminding people — well, Suga, mostly — that he was omega had been his goal. He glanced towards Suga, who wasn’t looking at him at all, instead he was busy talking to Hinata and Narita. Narita was showing Hinata Suga’s signs as Suga called them out. All three of them cheered whenever Hinata got them on first try. 

He slumped, disappointed.

Ukai followed his look. “Ah. So that’s why…” He gave him a friendly pat on the arm then lowered his hand. “He’ll come around.” 

Daichi wasn’t so sure. He’d thought… but then Suga had spent the rest of the day avoiding him again, so maybe not.

* * *

“Hey, Suga?” he called out as they were cleaning up after practice. “Could I talk to you for a moment?”

Suga visibly hesitated, but he handed his mop over to Kageyama (who instantly started a mopping competition with Hinata) and walked over to Daichi, pausing briefly to grab a water bottle from Kiyoko’s cooler bag. “Hey. Did you need something?” Suga flicked his gaze up to Daichi’s eyes, then looked away again. 

“I just… I’ve missed you at lunch?” Daichi said. He wanted to be careful with this. He didn’t want to overwhelm Suga right off the bat. Coming on too strong hadn’t worked during his heats and Daichi saw no reason why it would now. But if he could just get Suga to talk to him again…

“Oh, yeah. Sorry. I’ve been finishing a project,” Suga said evasively. He was watching Kageyama and Hinata like he suspected they’d run off if he took his eyes off them. 

“Oh. Okay. I was just wondering,” Daichi said, and was gathering courage to ask Suga to join him for lunch the next day when Suga turned and smiled at him.

“But I’m done now, so I’ll sit with you and Asahi tomorrow, if that’s okay?”

“Of course!” Daichi smiled at him in relief. 

Suga blinked rapidly then looked away again, fiddling absently with the water bottle, but he was smiling a little too. That seemed encouraging.

* * *

Daichi wasn’t one to give up at the first setback. The eyeliner thing had kind of, sort of, worked, but it hadn’t been as effective as he’d hoped. He’d still keep it up, but he needed something else, something that would get Suga to talk to him again. Maybe he was being stupid and this would all blow up in his face, but if Suga wanted a traditional omega, Daichi was at least willing to try. He wasn’t sure what else to do at this point. He was already being more obvious than an omega was expected to be when it wasn’t close to their heat. Maybe because omegas couldn’t help being really obvious during that time they were expected to be more subtle the rest of the time. Daichi wasn’t good at subtle. 

His cooking skills didn’t magically improve overnight, sadly, but the spicy rice and cute vegetable animals would at least be edible. It showed willing, didn’t it? 

When it came to lunch time, however, he was strangely shy, almost changing his mind before nudging the lunch box in Suga’s direction. Suga would at least have lunch with Daichi and Asahi now, so it wasn’t like he had gone back to avoiding Daichi completely. He was just a little distant still. Hopefully this would help fix that. “Um. I made… It’s a lot, so if you want..?”

Suga blinked at him. “…You cooked?” 

“It’s edible, I swear!” Daichi said. He looked hopefully at Suga. “Try something!”

“Um. Okay…” Suga looked a little skeptical. He was well aware of the limits to Daichi’s cooking skills, but not even Daichi could fuck up raw carrots. Suga really didn’t have to look quite so surprised when the first mouthful didn’t immediately give him food poisoning. 

In the end he ate quite a lot of it, enough that Daichi felt that his honor was safe. 

“This was really good. You should cook more often.” Suga put his chopsticks down and smiled at him. Suga was nice, but not so nice that he’d say that if he didn’t mean it, and definitely not so nice that he’d choke down that much food if it was inedible. 

Daichi beamed, pleased with himself. He popped a star-shaped carrot into his mouth and chewed happily.

“Here, have some water,” Suga said, and thrust his ever-present water bottle in Daichi’s direction. 

Asahi looked approvingly at both of them.

* * *

The make-up took forever to apply since Daichi wasn’t used to doing it, so Daichi relegated that to after weekend practices. He hadn’t expected to end up teaching Hinata and Yamaguchi how to put on eyeliner however. “I can barely do it myself,” he muttered under his breath as he tilted Yamaguchi’s head back. “Stop blinking!” 

“Sorry, Daichi!” 

Tsukishima was pretending not to watch them out of the corner of his eyes, but Daichi had already realized that Tsukishima paid attention to everything Yamaguchi did, whether he admitted it or not. They were both alphas, so maybe there wasn’t anything in it. At the moment however Daichi was inclined to be sympathetic to anybody who seemed to share his romance problems, even Tsukishima. 

Hinata had already smeared his eyeliner out, being unable to keep his hands out of his eyes. It was supposed to be waterproof, but it was clearly not Hinata-proof. 

“You look like Aoba Johsai’s Mad Dog,” Kageyama said critically, head tilted to the side as he studied Hinata. 

Noya paused with his shirt half over his head. He lowered his arms. “…Now I want to shave Hinata’s head. Like, those weird stripes around his head, you know? It’d be so cool!”

Tanaka poked his head up from where he’d been rummaging through his gym bag, eyebrows raised excitedly. 

“No,” Suga said flatly, putting his empty water bottle down on the bench. 

“But Sugaaaaaaa!” Noya whined.

“I’d look badass!” Hinata said.

“No!” Daichi and Suga said in unison. Daichi honestly didn’t care what Hinata did with his hair, but he suspect that Hinata’s mother probably did.

“Does it look okay?” Yamaguchi asked hesitantly, and Daichi remembered what he was doing. He gave Yamaguchi a tiny upwards wing at the corner of his eye and then lowered his pencil, satisfied. It was a lot easier to get the sides even on somebody else. At least once he stopped worrying about jabbing them in the eye. 

“You look good,” Daichi said, and Yamaguchi beamed at him, before immediately skipping over to Tsukishima to get his approval. 

“Hn. Waste of time, could’ve been half way home by now,” Tsukishima said dismissively, already heading towards the door, bag over his shoulder.

Yamaguchi’s face fell. “Oh. Sorry, Tsuk—“

“But Daichi’s right; You’re pretty,” Tsukishima added before exiting the locker room without a look back.

“Oh!” Yamaguchi stopped dead, his entire face lighting up. Then he was hurrying after Tsukishima. “Tsukki, wait for me!”

“Ah, youth,” Kinoshita said. He held his hand out. “Can I try?” 

Daichi handed the pencil over. “Why the hell not?”

* * *

He’d started bringing Suga some kind of tiny snack almost every day though. Not a whole bento, and nothing complicated, but something he thought Suga would like. It had taken Yachi a week or so to catch on to what he was doing, and then she’d shyly given him a box full of shapes and cut-outs which Daichi had been trying to use even though he didn’t quite see the appeal. Suga seemed to though. He’d actually cooed at a particularly successful Totoro cupcake. 

“Oh man, Daichi, this is adorable! I couldn’t possible eat this! I have to take a picture. I had no idea you were this good at baking!” Suga held his phone up and took several photos. “So cute!”

So Daichi persevered. 

Asahi was blushing more over it than Daichi was. Daichi mostly just felt weirdly satisfied whenever Suga smiled and ate something he’d made. 

He’d made a batch of chili brownies that had actually made Suga ask him for more. Nobody else would even touch them after the first taste, but Suga liked them, so Daichi didn’t care. He’d made another batch the next day and Suga had beamed at him and punched his shoulder in delight. 

Daichi had sort of hoped that Suga would understand what he was doing and spontaneously declare his affections after volleyball practice one day, but that clearly wasn’t happening. He thought Suga didn’t mind the attention or Daichi’s clumsy attempts at cooking, maybe even liked it, but he seemed mildly confused more than anything. He definitely didn’t seem like he was working on a love confession. 

Maybe he’d just have to ask Suga straight out. He’d been trying to avoid that, partly because as long as Suga hadn’t firmly and irrevocably turned him down, Daichi still had hope, and partly because Daichi was terrible at this kind of thing. He was much more comfortable showing affection through action than through words, and for the most part, Suga was as well. Daichi had no problems interpreting Suga’s various jabs to the side, stomach and back as expressions of affection. It was all friendly though. Friendship punches. 

Daichi wanted romantic punches.

Okay, that sounded wrong, but something like that, anyway.

* * *

“Hey, Sawamura,” Kinoshita called out, and Daichi paused on his walk towards the gym. He turned, a little surprised. The second years usually went to Ennoshita when they needed something, not Daichi. 

“Hey,” he said back, tilting his head in a question.

Kinoshita’s scent of plums was usually too subtle for Daichi to catch, but right now he was sweetly and strongly embarrassed. “I just wanted to ask… The eyeliner and stuff that you had the other day… I mean, where did you buy it?”

Daichi blinked at him. 

Kinoshita didn’t squirm but Daichi got the distinct impression that the only reason he wasn’t was sheer force of will. 

“…Daiso,” Daichi said finally. “Why do you want to know?”

“I just wanted to try it? Just. You know, for fun? Because it was fun the other day when you did Hinata’s and Yamaguchi’s eyes?” Kinoshita was distractingly sweet smelling now. Daichi remembered that Kinoshita had borrowed his eyeliner as well.

“Oh.” Daichi blinked again. Team bonding by sharing make up tips had not been one of Daichi’s plans. Bonding over food made more sense to him, but if Kinoshita wanted it, Daichi could probably manage to fit it in. Yamaguchi might be interested too, and Noya would be interested in hair care was added to it. “If you want, I could give you some of the stuff I never used?” He knew there were more expensive and higher quality options than Daiso, probably even Shimada Mart had a selection, but he wasn’t going to start with that when he had no idea if it was even going to work. Daichi had literally just scooped a handful of whatever was available into his cart and looked at it later. Not all of it had been good buys. 

Anyway, he was never going to pull off green eyeliner and neon pink eyeshadow, so he was happy to pass that on to Kinoshita if he wanted it.

Kinoshita blinked back at him, clearly surprised. Sometimes Daichi really wondered what his reputation was like among the second years. “Oh you don’t have to do that.” 

“Well, I want to,” Daichi said firmly. 

And that was that.

* * *

Suga stopped being distant, and he started touching Daichi again. Probably nobody else had even noticed that he’d stopped, because Suga had been the perfect co-captain and friend, but Daichi had, and he could feel the difference between distant Suga and tentative Suga. This was definitely tentative Suga.

Sometimes he gave Daichi a searching look, like he was trying to figure something out. Daichi hoped it was whether or not he’d actually want to date Daichi, and not what had happened to all of Daichi’s sleeves (Daichi had rolled them up or cut them off the minute he’d realized the reaction that got him. He needed every weapon at his disposal and shame was for other people in this case. Like Asahi who might stop blushing by the time they graduated). 

He started accepting Daichi’s invites to study at his house again. He’d been willing to study at the library with Asahi and Kiyoko, even if Asahi spent most of the time cat-napping or texting Noya and Kiyoko ignored all of them, but had excused his way out of being alone with Daichi. “Oh sorry, can’t. I promised my dad I’d do a thing/I have a tutoring session/extra volleyball practice with Kageyama; he really needs some mentoring you know and…/can’t right now because of reasons.”

But after two weeks of eyeliner and chili brownies, Suga had said that they could study after volleyball practice, and Daichi had shoved him and beamed happily. Suga had shoved him back and laughed. 

Mostly Daichi didn’t think of the way Suga had fucked him, of the way Suga had said his name. He couldn’t. He just couldn’t hang out with Suga like normal with that running through his head, so he pushed it away, focused on the Suga who was in front of him, the Suga who was his friend, not his lover. 

Daichi still hoped that Suga would be willing to consider dating him, but he couldn’t think about that all the time. He’d never get anything done for one. 

Suga was chewing absently on his pencil and frowning down at his practice test. “I’ve changed my mind,” he said abruptly. “I’m not going to university — I’m going to see if Coach Ukai will hire me to restock his shelves or something.” 

“You would be bored to death,” Daichi pointed out. “I’m pretty sure _Coach Ukai_ is bored to death most of the time.”

“Anything has to be better than taking this stupid test again,” Suga declared. 

Daichi grinned and held his hand out over the table which was stacked high with school books, notes and practice test booklets. “Give it to me, let me see if I can help.”

“You’re worse at physics than I am.” Suga still handed him the test. 

This was true. Daichi shrugged. “Fresh pair of eyes might do some good.” 

Suga waited a moment. “You don’t happen to have—“

“In the fridge.” 

“Ooooh! Thanks, Daichi!”

* * *

Kiyoko was a gentle beta who never spoke much about anything, but Daichi knew she was fiercely proud of being the manager of the volleyball team. Her scent was always a subtle vanilla, but around Yachi it kicked up a notch, got spicier. Daichi was never good at discerning beta scent, but even he got that. 

Tanaka and Noya were, of course, heartbroken for all of five minutes and then they became Kiyoko’s very embarrassing and very unhelpful wingmen. 

“Kiyoko is so wonderful!” Tanaka said earnestly, towering over Yachi like the world’s friendliest gangster.

“She smells like all the best things in the world and she is an inspiration!” Noya exclaimed, nodding eagerly. 

“You should ask her out!” They said in unison.

Yachi turned bright red, dropped the volleyball she was holding, stuttered something and then stayed hidden behind Yamaguchi for the remainder of the practice. Yamaguchi looked faintly bemused and smelled a lot proud.

“I know they want to help,” Kiyoko said. She joined them in the corner, looking towards Yachi and Yamaguchi. “But…”

Suga sighed. “I’ll talk to them.” 

Daichi just folded his arms over his chest and glowered.

* * *

Omegas were supposed to be good at calming people down. Daichi was better at grabbing people by the scruff of the neck and yelling. 

“What the fuck are you thinking?” he yelled at Kageyama, who smelled like sour milk and fury.

“He said—!” Kageyama said, legs kicking wildly. “I told him not to say that!”

“Pff,” Tsukishima said. “I didn’t say anything that wasn’t true. You should be used to it by now.” Tsukishima was the most effective provocateur Karasuno had and Daichi appreciated that about him, but sometimes Daichi really wished Tsukishima would keep his mouth shut. Or at the very least stop provoking Kageyama and Hinata just because he could. 

Daichi shook Kageyama. “Calm down!”

“I am calm!” Kageyama shouted. 

Tsukishima tilted his head back and looked amused. The scent of ripe strawberries was filling the air around him, demonstrating more than anything how pleased he was with himself. Tsukishima had the best scent control among the first years, so if the scent was this clear he meant it to be. 

Daichi looked over at Suga. Suga had grabbed Hinata by the back of his shirt and was easily holding him in place despite Hinata’s struggles. Daichi was tempted to just knock all their heads together until they learned to get along. He suspected that that wouldn’t work. He didn’t care much if Hinata and Kageyama fought — it had clearly turned into a puppyish sort of bonding between them — but he couldn’t allow it to get physical among the rest of them. With this many alphas around, he couldn’t lose control. It never ended well for a team if the captain allowed arguments to be settled by fists.

Suga shrugged, clearly leaving it up to Daichi.

“Go home, Tsukishima,” Daichi said. 

Nobody had grabbed Tsukishima, because nobody needed to. Tsukishima fought by words and sheer alpha presence, not fists. Tanaka was still hovering within grabbing distance just in case, eyes wide and worried. Despite picking fights with opposing teams when he could, Tanaka hated it when his friends fought. 

Daichi wasn’t super fond of the taste of soap mixed with the smell of strawberries and sour milk himself. 

Tsukishima smirked. “Not a problem. Leaving now!” he called out as he exited the gym, door slamming behind him. 

Suga let go of Hinata. “Wait, wasn’t it Tsukishima’s turn to do the final clean up?”

“That bastard,” Daichi said, but he couldn’t quite suppress his amusement. Obviously he’d have to talk to Tsukishima and get him to stop annoying Kageyama whenever he wanted to get out of a task, but damn, it was kind of funny. 

Suga rolled his eyes at him. 

“It’s not funny,” Kageyama said sulkily. He’d stopped struggling and the sour milk was turning sweet again. 

“I know, I know,” Suga said comfortingly, and Daichi let go of Kageyama; letting Suga take it from here seemed like a good idea.

* * *

“So I talked to Kageyama,” Suga said, joining Daichi on his walk to Sakanoshita Store for a quick bad-for-you snack break from studying. Daichi felt like he was studying more than playing volleyball right now and he wasn’t sure he liked it. Preferably he’d want to dedicate enough time to do both equally, but that was difficult to arrange, and he had to study if he wanted to go to university. 

“Yeah?”

“He promises to work on his temper, if Tsukishima works on being less of an ass,” Suga said, lips twitching in amusement.

Daichi snorted. “I’ll see what I can do.” 

Suga kept meeting his eyes and smiling and it was so hard not to just lean over and kiss him.

Daichi changed the subject to distract himself. “Did you talk to Tanaka and Noya as well?”

“Oh, yeah, they were very apologetic and promise to do better.” Suga nodded.

“I guess that’s the best we can hope for.”

“Honestly I’m not expecting much from any of them,” Suga admitted. “But I said you were really angry, so that might help. They respect you a lot.” 

Daichi rubbed the back of his head. “I don’t know about that…” He let Suga do a lot of the smoothing over partly because it worked and partly by instinct. As far as Daichi was concerned Suga embodied the best part of being an alpha; he was strong, but kind. He understood how people worked and he was protective of those he considered his. Becoming vice-captain had turned the entire volleyball club into “his”. 

And Suga was always there when Daichi needed him. 

It was at least a month until Daichi’s next heat. He wanted to ask Suga again, but he was afraid Suga might say yes this time without meaning it.

* * *

“It’s hard to explain.” Suga rubbed his nose. “I know it’s hard for omegas to be betrayed or let down by their team as well, but to alphas it’s like the world is falling. I know that if something like that happened to me — if I tossed and the entire team were gone… It would break me.” 

Daichi stretched his leg out under the table and nudged Suga’s knee. “That would never happen.”

Suga gave him a quick smile. “No, I know. But if it did… It would be hard enough to get over without my new team mates bringing it up every second.”

“Tsukishima doesn’t do that,” Daichi protested. It was a little odd to be arguing on this side for once. Usually it was Suga defending players while Daichi growled. But Suga apparently really did consider himself Kageyama’s mentor. “Hinata goes on about his kingly status more.”

Suga made a face. “Kageyama and Hinata are partners. It’s different. You know it is.”

“Like we are?”

“Yes,” Suga said, but he’d hesitated. 

Daichi frowned at him. “No?”

“It’s—“

“If you say that it’s different for two alphas I will kick you,” Daichi said seriously.

Suga laughed. “No, I was going to say that it’s newer. I trust you, and I trust the team. Kageyama doesn’t quite, not yet. But he will.”

* * *

Daichi stretched an arm over his head and yawned. “Okay, I think I’m done—“ He sneezed suddenly. He gave Suga a baffled look. “What?”

“Sorry, I’m going now, um, I’m done too, I’ll see you at practice,” Suga rambled, face bright red, scrambling to his feet and quickly grabbing his text books. 

Chili was tickling his nose. Daichi sneezed again. “No, wait, Suga—!” 

He was too late, Suga was out the door before Daichi could stop him, water bottle under his arm, calling out a goodbye. 

Daichi fell down on his back. He stared up at the ceiling. Okay. This was… At least he knew for sure that Suga still wanted him? But why did he keep running away? Daichi didn’t understand it.

* * *

“All right,” Daichi said, arms crossed over his chest. He’d kept Tsukishima back in the locker room before practice started, and Tsukishima was now sitting on the floor, headphones around his neck and a politely disinterested expression on his face. “Tsukishima.”

“Sawamura,” Tsukishima acknowledged. 

“Stop being an ass.” Short, to the point. Daichi was quite pleased with it.

Tsukishima raised an eyebrow. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m always perfectly polite to everybody.”

Daichi snorted at that. “Stop provoking your team mates just because you can,” Daichi clarified. Unnecessarily, he felt. “They’re your team mates, they have to be able to trust you.”

Tsukishima sighed. “You take the fun out of everything.”

Daichi frowned at him and wondered if he needed to up the aura of disapproval. 

“But I’ll try,” Tsukishima added. “I can’t promise I won’t say anything if they’re being really stupid though.”

Daichi accepted that as the best he was going to get. For now. Surely somewhere within the tall snarky blond there was a smidgeon of team spirit? Tsukishima was already a lot better than he had been. Daichi decided to have faith.

* * *

He asked Suga to stay behind after practice. Enough was enough, he had to ask Suga straight out. He was nervous about ruining everything between them, but he just had to know. If Suga didn’t really want him, it would be better to know, so he could start to get over him and stop hoping for something that was never going to happen.

Suga looked puzzled when Daichi sat him down on the bench. “What’s up?” 

“Look, I just want you to tell me yes or no,” Daichi blurted out. “Sometimes I think you like me, but I’ve been trying to… to actively seduce you for a month now, and I’ve asked you to help me through my heats lots of times, and you haven’t really said anything about it, so I just… I really, really like you? Do you feel anything for me at all or should I just give up?” His face was probably bright red by now, but he’d said everything he wanted to say. 

“Oh,” Suga said. His eyes were wide and shocked. His hands were clutched tightly around his water bottle. “I didn’t… I thought you asked because I was safe.” 

Daichi shook his head, confused. “Safe?”

“Your friend. Not somebody who’d push for more than you wanted to give.”

Daichi was still confused. “Of course you’re my friend?”

“Yeah, but… I want to push. I don’t want us to be ‘seasonal’ friends.” Their times would synch up eventually if they slept together often enough. That had nothing to do with feelings and everything to do with biology. Friends did it all the time, no matter their orientation. It was easy and casual. Not talked about much but not frowned upon either. Daichi understood it, but it wasn’t something he wanted for himself.

“I don’t want that either,” Daichi protested. 

“You only hit on me when you are in heat though,” Suga pointed out. “What was I supposed to think?”

“That was the only time I was sure you wanted me!”

Suga looked startled. “What?”

“You don’t smell like you’re turned on that often,” Daichi shrugged a little sheepishly. He knew that that wasn’t necessarily a good clue to feelings, but he couldn’t help but rely on it anyway. “And you don’t really treat me any different from how you treat the rest of the guys — which is good!” he hastened to add. “I don’t want you to stop punching me or anything. But it does make it a bit hard to figure out whether you’re interested or not.” 

Suga was blushing now. “I don’t punch you that often,” he said. “…Do I?”

“You kind of do, but I don’t mind it.” 

Suga ducked his head. “I… Uh. I’m sorry?”

“I said I don’t mind. I… like it, actually,” Daichi admitted. It made him feel like Suga considered him an equal. It always had. 

“…You do?”

“Yeah, I’d just, um, like to add some kisses. If you’re interested. In that. In me.” Daichi trailed off awkwardly. He rubbed the back of his head, waiting for Suga’s response. He thought… It seemed like maybe Suga wanted him back, but he needed to be sure. 

Suga jerked his head up. “I am!” 

They stared at each other for a moment, uncertain what the next step was supposed to be. Daichi had no experience with this. Fucking Suga at the match had been his first time doing anything sexual with another person. He’d kissed before, but he hadn’t ever initiated it. 

“So. Um. Can I kiss you?”

Suga flushed, but nodded quickly. He tilted his head up, scooting over on the bench to close the distance between them. Daichi ducked his head and their lips met. It was a brief kiss, but Daichi was beaming afterwards.

“Just so it’s clear,” Suga said, moving his hand down to clasp Daichi’s. “I want to date you.” 

“Just so it’s clear,” Daichi echoed, grinning. “I’ve been trying to date you for weeks now. This is going to be awesome.”

Suga laughed, squeezing his hand. Then he blinked. “Wait. Is this why you’ve been feeding me snacks this last month?”

“Um. You like spicy stuff and I wanted you to talk to me again,” Daichi said, blushing. “I thought if I could get you to eat my food, you’d like me again. Or something. Look, I was desperate, okay?”

Suga laughed again. He leaned in for another kiss, smiling against Daichi’s mouth. “I always liked you, Daichi. It was just difficult to be around you without thinking about…” he trailed off, but the scent of ginger and chili left no doubt of what he meant. 

“It was difficult for me too,” Daichi said, grinning. It was a little funny now that he knew for certain that Suga wanted him back. 

“Was the fucking eyeliner really necessary, by the way?” Suga poked him hard in the side. “I wanted to punch even poor Narita that first day, and I know for a fact that he has no interest in you.”

Daichi laughed. He placed his hands around Suga’s waist and lifted him into his lap, tilting his head back once Suga had settled. Suga was trying to frown down at him, but kept grinning instead. It was cute. 

“Yes, it was. I wasn’t expecting half the team to get into it though.” 

“Speaking of Narita, I think he’s about ready to punch somebody, too, by the way,” Suga said conversationally. He put his hands in Daichi’s hair, thumbs smoothing over his brow. 

Daichi squinted up at him. “Oh. Kinoshita?” He realized he’d seen Kinoshita pretty much constantly in some kind of make-up since Daichi had given him his spare make up. Huh. He hadn’t realized that Kinoshita was doing it for any other reason than because he wanted to. “Should we do anything about that?”

“Nah, they’ll have to muddle through on their own like everybody else.” Suga smiled and then dropped a quick kiss on his brow, then the tip of his nose, before meeting his mouth again and lingering. Daichi forgot all about Kinoshita and Narita and everyone other than Suga. He slipped his hands under Suga’s shirt, sliding them up his back, reveling in the opportunity to touch Suga’s bare skin. Suga pushed against his hands, clearly liking it as well. 

He could smell the ginger and chili in the air and from the way Suga suddenly sighed in pleasure and nipped at his lower lip, he suspected that he smelled — or sounded — like a waterfall to Suga. He still didn’t quite understand what his scent was really like to other people. People tended to agree on “mountain” and “water”, but when he’d laughingly go “well, that’s bland”, they’d all shake their heads and go “no, definitely not”. Anyway, who cared about other people? Suga seemed to like it and that was all Daichi cared about.

Daichi regretfully pulled out of the kiss before things could get really heated. 

Suga hummed quizzically. 

“I don’t want us to have sex in the locker room,” Daichi said. “And if we keep this up, I’ll definitely forget that and then Hinata or Take-chan will walk in on us and I won’t be able to face anybody ever again.”

Suga laughed. “Agreed.” He leaned forwards for a final kiss before he slid out of Daichi’s lap. He held his hand out to Daichi. Daichi let himself get pulled up and then laced their fingers together. Suga smiled at him. His expression turned wicked a moment later. “At your place, however…”

“Well, if nobody is home,” Daichi said prudently, knowing full well that he wasn’t going to care about that if Suga wanted to make out some more in Daichi’s room. Judging by Suga’s grin he knew it too. 

Daichi was ridiculously happy. This had turned out much better than he had feared. Much, much better.

* * *

When they entered the gym holding hands the next day, the only ones who noticed were Asahi (blushing and a thumb up), Kiyoko (small smile quickly hidden) and Ennoshita (high five from both of them). 

The rest of them probably picked up on it when Daichi absently gave Suga a kiss before going over to the suddenly grinning Coach Ukai and Take-chan. 

Daichi was grinning too. Now all they had to do was crush Shiratorizawa and life would be perfect.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this mainly to see if I _could_ , and a little because I wanted omega!Daichi.
> 
> Also, yes to Daichi Suga smells like Thai food, Michimiya like apple pie. To Suga Daichi smells like cold clear mountain water. Suga is, in fact, v. thirsty.


End file.
